The Enemy within: Media Ignores Second Arson Video

Israeli mainstream media showed video of Yitzhar event shot by Arabs but ignores video shot and published by the Jews.

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Gil Ronen, 28/05/12 09:49

Arabs attack soldiers

Reuters

Mainstream Israeli media sources provided further evidence Monday that they are unable or unwilling to report objectively on events in Judea and Samaria (Yehuda and Shomron), as news outlets appear determined to ignore new evidence of Arab wrongdoing in a confrontation near Yitzhar Saturday.

Arab video of the incident has been featured prominently, but video shot by Jews (below) and disseminated for publication Monday morning has been largely ignored in the hours since its release. The Jews say that it shows Arabs setting fire to their own fields, for propaganda purposes. Arabs have shown similarly unclear footage of Saturday's events and claimed it shows Jews setting fire to Arab fields.

For the fourth straight Saturday, Arabs set fire to fields near Yitzhar. The arson is part of a sophisticated propaganda campaign with the involvement of B'tselem, a group with funding from the Ford Foundation that favors the reoccupation of Judea and Samaria by Arabs.

In these attacks, the Arabs and their leftist collaborators set fire to fields that belong to Jews, and sometimes to their own fields. They provoke IDF soldiers and violently attack soldiers and Jewish civilians, with fists, rocks and knives. They videotape all that ensues and then produce a heavily edited version for the media featuring only retaliatory moves by the IDF and settlers. The media swallows the Arab version uncritically and publishes it.

The footage of the knife has been embedded in a few media reports, and the second video appears to be featured nowhere except Arutz Sheva. The video was only edited and released to the media after the Shavuot holiday, which ended Sunday evening.

Photos by Reuters show Arabs daring to engage in fisticuffs with armed IDF soldiers, in the knowledge that any violence by the soldiers will result in a media pile-up of the kind Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner was subjected to when he used force against anarchists.

The Israeli government allows the activity of anarchist groups and NGOs like B'tselem that openly incite terror activities in Judea and Samaria.